Allison Williams in ‘Girls’

Road to the Emmys 2012: The Supporting Actor & Actress

Allison Williams doesn’t read reviews but she considered it high praise when a friend started talking to her about her “Girls” character, Marnie, in the third person.

“That just means I’ve created someone, with (series creator) Lena Dunham’s genius behind it, to feel like a real person to people who have known me for my whole life,” says Williams.

Williams says she can identify with Marnie, the seemingly most grown up of HBO’s “Girls” quartet, depending on the circumstances.

“Her desire to seem put together and the fact that she’s type A is something I can relate to, but as the season goes on that becomes less of a defining quality she has,” Williams says. “One thing I find different is she doesn’t have a driving passion. I’ve wanted to act since I was very little.”

She said having a father in media — her dad is “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams — didn’t influence her interest in acting.

“Put it this way, I wanted to be an actress before I had any understanding of what my dad’s job was,” says Williams, who landed her first on-camera role on the NBC series “American Dreams.” “It was me watching ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and realizing the Scarecrow and Hunk were played by the same person. ‘I can do that? Be something in a movie?’ I declared that my goal.”